"Bel Ami" Orgy Scene

KENT NEWS: The trustees of an old pump house which is being used to film a steamy orgy scene with Twilight heart-throb Robert Pattinson said they had no idea the shoot would be so raunchy, writes Chris Murphy. Film company Redwave Films is taking over the Crossness pumping station in Erith for three days of filming next week. Pattinson is starring in Bel Ami, and plays lothario reporter Georges Duroy who sleeps his way to the top of the business and seduces wealthy women. Kill Bill star Uma Thurman is also on the cast list, as his wife, in the film based on the classic novel by Guy de Maupassant. And Christina Ricci stars as Clotilde de Marelle, alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, both of whom fall under his spell. The crew have been on site for 10 days preparing the sets and will spend three days taking it all down again. The orgy scene will take place in a Parisian café being created in the Victorian landmark that will be open to the public later this year.

Pattinson, 23, who has also starred in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, said: “There is a lot of sex.” He told movie bible Variety: “It’s a totally amoral character. In Paris, everybody was just going nuts. It was like the 1980s. Sex was a kind of a weapon and a tool, and it’s odd.” Of the sex scenes, he said “there’s something very mercenary about it in a lot of ways”.

The station was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1865 and is undergoing renovation helped by lottery funding, government money and £20,000 from the film company. The station was built to pump London’s sewage into a reservoir before it was discharged into the Thames at high tide. The station houses the largest rotative beam engines in the world, built by James Watt and Sons, but these will be covered up by the film set. Both the building and the cast-iron machinery are being restored to their former glory by the Crossness Engines Trust and the station is open to the public by appointment before its general opening this year. Pump station trustee Mike Jones had no idea there was going to be a romp on site. He said: “I am on the set for one of the days, so that should be interesting. It is so cold in here I can’t think anyone would want to perform something like that. “I’m sure it will all be done in the best possible taste. I’d no idea what they were going to film, only that it was a Parisian café.” The station is being transformed into a 19th century French dining room to shoot the scene. One source said: “It will be tastefully done with lots of candlelight and lace, but it will be the sexiest thing Robert’s ever been seen in and will get his female fans even more excited.” A spokesman for the film said: “It will be really great fun filming in Kent. This is a great location.”

The movie is due out next year.